Side Story: Just West of the Musical

Stan Kenton's instrumental jazz
rendition of "West Side Story," performed by the School of Music, will
be the soundtrack for the Department of Dance's interpretation of the
classic story of star crossed lovers, told creatively through dance. This will feature the Kaleidescope Dancers and the Edmond Jazz Orchestra.

Monday, November 2, 2015

HARTEL DANCE GROUPPRESENTS RETROSPECTIVETHIS WEEKEND

Photo by Holton Rower

Hartel Dance Group celebrates its 7th year anniversary in the great OKC with “Retrospective” a choreographic reflection on 7 years creating dances under its company banner and 30 years of work by Founder and Artistic Director Austin Hartel. Performances are Friday and Saturday November 6th and 7th at Oklahoma Contemporary 3000 General Pershing Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73107

RETROSPECTIVE refers to the idea that one's body of work is related to and reflects the ideas, concerns, idiosyncrasies, style and voice of its author, and the means of deconstructing, re imagining and linking selected works from Hartel’s repertoire. For a look back at Hartel’s rich history, visit www.harteldancegroup.org

photo by Alexander Rower Calder

Hartel started his professional dance career as a ballet dancer with the Philadelphia Opera Company, holding an AGMA contract at the age of 16. He graduated from NCSA in the early 80’s and there he discovered modern dance. He worked with the Frank Holder Dance Company, The Trockadero Ballet for a short period, the Limon Company and after that, Pilobolus Dance Theater. The diversity of his trajectory as a dancer, has given Mr. Hartel a very unique choreographic style. He reached international recognition with his own company, Dalton Hartel Dance, based in NYC and touring all over the world. The dances that we will be able to see from that era are “Asleep in the desert”, a soft take to the mesmerizing music of Billi Gibbons and “A Cottage for Sale” a duet set to music by Dinah Washington that digs into the crumbling moments of a relationship of a couple once deeply in love. From his time as Director of HDG, Austin has decided to bring back “Tethered”,a piece set to the early 80’s music, “Syncopated” with original score by Aaron Robinson, and PopArt, a fun interactive dance. Among other pieces on the program, will be the US Premiere of "Después de la tempestad", a duet choreographed by Gloria Oviedo from Paraguay. This dance was selected as best modern dance choreography at the Concurso Nacional de danza of Paraguay, as well as the Dance Festival in Cabo Frio, Brasil.

HDG has performed several times at venues throughout Oklahoma, including the Festival of the Arts, The Lyric Theater at the Plaza , the Rose State College PRESENTS series, The Oklahoma Contemporary Dance Festival , and appeared at noteworthy events including the grand openings of the Myriad Gardens. HDG tours to numerous festivals and theaters, including New Arts Festival in Fort Myers (Florida), Momentum in Tulsa, and most recently, the Orlando Fringe Festival (Florida) where the company was awarded PEOPLES CHOICE Best Dance Company of the Fringe.